Stuck babysitting during the summer while her friends take glamorous vacations, fourteen-year-old Irene learns some lessons about life after meeting a beautiful, yet troubled, girl.

Ama, Jo, and Polly, three close friends from Bethesda, Maryland, spend the summer before ninth grade learning about themselves, their families, and the changing nature of their friendship.

At the Carter boardinghouse for rich teenaged girls who are interested in fashion, the race for high school homecoming queen turns friends and roommates against one another, and, as the votes roll in, some of the girls grow smarter and closer to God, while others seem to make the same mistakes over again.

As Mrs. Carter becomes increasingly distracted by General Harding, her boardinghouse girls find more opportunities to get into trouble, especially during a weekend getaway to a luxurious Vermont ski lodge, to which some of the girls have invited boys.

DJ's grandmother is a former fashion model who has restored an old mansion and turned it into a boarding house for rich teenaged girls who are interested in fashion, presenting DJ with a conflict between retaining her tomboy identity or changing her style, as she decides whether or not to try to fit in.